I managed to avoid most airtime taken up by the first nine Republican debates. The post-debate highlights were about all I could handle. I finally gathered enough courage to watch the last Republican debate start to finish, and I almost wish I hadn't.
Fueled and led by the current frontrunner's antics, it was again nothing but a stereotypical schoolyard argument. We had eye-rolling, name-calling, and attempts to outshout opponents. The only thing lacking was a derogatory comment about someone's mama. It was great to hear the candidates solve issues such as who sweats the most, who drinks the most water, and who uses too much makeup. Our country's future is much brighter, thanks to those deep, informative, and important exchanges. Furthermore, it is great that we established who is a choke artist, who is a liar, and who is a fraud. In modern parenting fashion, I wanted to give timeouts to the three bickering, childish, bullying candidates and allow the two reasonable adults on stage to speak about actual issues.
As I listened to the frontrunner stir the pot of hate and anger against everyone and everything, I was taken back to the 1995 movie The American President. At the end of the movie, President Michael Douglas gave a speech that seems to reflect what is happening in this campaign. (The name has been changed to reflect the current guilty candidate.) The big-screen president said, "We have serious problems to solve, and we need serious people to solve them. And whatever your particular problem is, I promise you Trump is not the least bit interested in it. He is interested in two things and two things only: making you afraid of it and telling you who's to blame for it." That is Donald Trump in a nutshell. He has discovered that he does not have to provide answers if he creates fear and places blame.
Donald Trump has a good tagline--Make America Great Again. My only problem with it is that even though America has some serious challenges, we are still a great nation. The problem is that we cannot talk our way out of these challenging times, which is all Donald Trump has done. He has yet to offer a single solution to any of our challenges. Sound bites are great, and chants about Mexico paying for a wall stir crowds, but sound bites and chants change nothing. On a side note, it sounds as though Mexico is not going to pay for that wall.
I also guess we should be a little concerned when world leaders start comparing him to Hitler. I am uncertain about the Hitler comparison, but I am sure about his prostituting himself to feed his ego and gain power. I am not the first to compare politicians to prostitutes, and I won't be the last. Many will alter and completely change "beliefs" at the drop of a hat if it means they can gain power or stay in power. Donald Trump has altered everything he claimed to believe in so he can run for president. He denies he said things even if they were on the evening news not long ago. To add to that sad condition, in a two-week stretch, we witnessed the New Jersey governor go from slamming Trump for being the worst candidate with a horrible temperament to kissing his butt and proclaiming him our savior.
I am not proud to admit that I have reached the point of being somewhat numb to that type of prostitution. A bigger issue concerns me much more than Trump being a whore. (I apologize for the whore comment. I should leave the name-calling to Donald.) My biggest issue is Trump selling himself as a winner. I am so tired of people buying that line without any hesitation. I cannot understand how people are ignoring his past and not seeing the reality that is Donald Trump.
If I were to write about Donald Trump in Wikipedia or have to describe him, the term winner would never be part of the discussion. A winner doesn't spend his life suing, threatening to sue, and being sued. A winner doesn't prostitute himself and say anything necessary to get attention and votes. A winner doesn't belittle people to make himself feel bigger. A winner doesn't talk about and treat women like property. A winner respects those around him. A winner doesn't call people names who don't agree with him. A true winner doesn't have to tell you how much he is liked by everyone. A true winner doesn't have to constantly tell you he is a winner. I never believe a person when he has to constantly tell me how good he is and how much he is liked. I see that as sad.
So, when you try to decide if this "winner" is worth voting for, I ask you to ask yourself two questions. Do you believe in the Golden Rule, and would your child get a timeout if he or she acted like The Donald?